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Google Plus: A Complete Guide to Search

Last week, we created a quick and dirty tutorial on how to navigate the new Facebook. This week, we’re turning our focus to Google+, as the newest social network expands its services to include search and many other new features; so many that it may be overwhelming to new and existing users. Google+ has advanced from a field trial, to Beta, and is now available to everyone. Today, we’re going to focus on the network’s search feature to help you understand how the proprietary search function operates, and how it shows results.

Google+ Search allows users to search for results both on Google Plus and the web. Results are a combination of: Google+ posts, including public posts and posts shared with you; People, including results from people suggestions; and Sparks, which shows the trending results from the web related to your search.

Located at the top of your Google+ page, the search bar works just like the search engine’s – it will offer auto-complete suggestions or allow you to search your own term(s). With Google+, searching “Blue Interactive Agency” will automatically show Blue’s Google+ profile (see image below). Once you hit enter, you will see combined results from Google+ Public posts and posts shared with you, all determined by your individual circles and shared public posts.

Once you hit enter for your search query, you will be able to filter your results under one of the 3 aforementioned filters. Here’s what you’ll get for each one:

People: Suggestions for Google Plus users, along with information about them (i.e. whether their account is verified, which of your circles they’re in and a button to add them to a circle if they’re not).

Google+ Posts: These results are from Google+ posts only. They can be public posts by anyone on the network, and/or limited posts from your circles. You can see the “Public” share setting next to the post date.

Sparks: Basically, this filter shows you if, when and where your search phrase was mentioned in the news or other recent story on the web. It’s kind of like built-in Google Alerts, customized to your individual search at one time.

You can also filter search results based on relevance (“best of) and time (“most recent”). If you want to share your results from any category, simply click “Share” under the result to post to your update and specify your personal privacy setting. You can also +1 any of the results.